


Chance Encounter

by Joanne_Lupin



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a Dork, Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Post-Episode: e049 Old Oak Doors Part B, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 06:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1888770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanne_Lupin/pseuds/Joanne_Lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin stumbles upon Carlos in the desert. Since they're both pretty bored and alone, they decide to hang out together. Kevin, however, gets more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chance Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers!
> 
> This was so therapeutic to write like I'm still so upset but this was cute and idk it's just a little nice thing so I don't worry too much about my bb.

Carlos took a break from his work to glance at his phone. There were still two hours before Cecil got off work and he could call. And in this reality, two hours felt like an eternity. Here, he never needed to eat or sleep. It was always light. He could work for ages without needing a break. Not too long ago, he would have loved to be able to work through lunch and stay in the lab overnight without feeling the physical effects. But, though he was glad that he could work so much to get back, he still felt tired. Not physically tired. Emotionally tired. He could only work for so long before loneliness would set in and he had to stop.

The desert was vast and empty, and he hadn't seen another human face, or even an animal face, since Dana's army had scattered, leaving him all alone. Sometimes, the isolation was too much. He couldn't concentrate on his work in that state. He'd set down his equipment and lie down on his back, thinking that if he got gravity involved, he could keep the tears from coming out. (He couldn't.)

This was one of those times when he couldn't concentrate, when he felt so alone, so he stepped away from the makeshift lab station and laid down in the sand. He sighed heavily, watching the second hand on his watch. 

When he heard the voice, he thought, at first, that he was hallucinating. Of course, that was unlikely. He wasn't dehydrated- or, as far as he could tell, (and since he was a scientist, he could tell very much) in any way unwell. And with the beeping of his danger meter and the whirring of his reality gauge, he knew that any hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation were highly improbable. When the voice spoke again, he looked up.

"Well, hi there! You're Cecil's little scientist friend, aren't you?"

"Kevin?" Carlos gaped. He had no idea Kevin was in the desert. Carlos had never seen him in person, so Cecil's descriptions of Kevin were all he had to go on. They didn't quite prepare him for the ghastly smile or the empty, black eyes, but he couldn't be too shocked. After two years of living in Night Vale, nothing surprised him.

"Yes, indeed. And... what is your name, again?"

"Carlos," said Carlos, disbelieving. "I'm Cecil's boyfriend."

"Right. Yes. I didn't expect you here. I thought you'd be fighting with Night Vale."

Carlos sighed sadly. "I would very much like to be in Night Vale, but I couldn't get through the doors before they closed. I don't belong there. But I'm trying to find a way back."

"Might I help?" Kevin asked.

Carlos glanced at his equipment. "Well, my research itself is best left up to me alone, but I would very much appreciate having someone to talk to."

"I talk for a living, Carlos. I'd be glad to talk to you."

"Thank you, Kevin." He glanced at his phone. Somehow, an hour had passed. Time was weird here, much like it was at home. _Or rather,_ he thought with a pang of sadness, _in Night Vale._ He stood and walked to his lab station. "Cecil will be calling in about an hour, but we can chat until then. I've missed talking to people in person."

"I understand, Carlos. It can get lonely here. You should smile. It'll make you feel so much better!"

"Huh, I'll consider it." Carlos turned to check a machine.

"So, buddy, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Well, um," Carlos stalled, struggling to find a way to explain his work. "So... You know how, when you have a doorway, you have the side you come from- here, a side you go to- Night Vale, and the doorway between them? But, um, you also have the barrier that the door is set in. So, for example, in your average building, you have, say, a door from the hallway to the bathroom. And the reason you need that door is because there's a wall in between you and the bathroom, right? You _could_ just bust a hole in the wall, but you don't need to because you have a door, you know? So what I'm trying to do is find that wall that the doors were set in. Then I might be able to find a way to break through it. But I'll also need to find a way to repair it so that I don't cause any damage to Night Vale. It's quite a lot of work."

Kevin nodded. "I see. That's quite brilliant of you, Carlos."

"Thank you, Kevin. I just hope it's brilliant enough." Carlos glanced at his dormant phone.

"You miss Night Vale?"

"Yes. But I mostly miss Cecil."

Kevin nodded again, sitting and watching Carlos carefully.

"I mean," Carlos continued as he started working on a machine, "I can't even imagine how I could have ever gotten by without him. He's the sweetest person I've ever met. You know, I've always been an outcast. I mean, I'm a weird, nerdy, gay, mixed-race scientist. But Cecil... He always calls me perfect. He always makes me feel like I belong. He's the only one who makes me feel like that. And even when I'm not perfect, he doesn't make me feel... defective, I guess. He's helped me so much, but he didn't _fix_ me. I guess that's the best way to put it."

Kevin, at this point, was trying not to listen, but it was hard to zone out from the only human voice he'd heard in what felt like weeks- even months. He couldn't bear how cheesey Carlos sounded, but hey, what else was he going to listen to?

Thankfully, Cecil's call arrived shortly after, and Carlos wandered off to a more secluded place to talk, asking Kevin to keep an eye on the equipment. 

From that day on, Kevin couldn't go a day without getting a new lecture on something Cecil-related. Kevin had assumed that Cecil would be the eloquent one in the relationship, but he didn't realize that Carlos could wax poetic about a single aspect of Cecil for hours on end. One day, it was his hair. The next, it was his eyes. He sincerely hoped that Carlos would find a way out before he ran out of above-the-belt body parts. The day after that, it would be his voice. On and on, mixed with scientific mumbling unintelligible to anyone but another scientist. 

It was better than talking to no one, Kevin decided. But not by much.


End file.
